Friday 15 June 2012

Wedding Outfits and Finding an Abaya

Preparations for Fashionista’s wedding later this year are gathering pace in the family. We have sorted out most of the big things now – venues, decor, food (the one thing you CANNOT get wrong at an Asian wedding). Fashionista has found her wedding dress which is absolutely stunning (and nothing like what she originally planned) and another dress for her walima (grooms reception) which we are waiting to see.

I am trying to sort out outfits for my kids and hubby. Some have come from Pakistan courtesy of my mum and others I have found here. I always find the boys easy to buy formal clothes for. For my daughter, it takes much more searching because the colour scheme in all of the Asian shops seems to be limited to teal, pink, purple and royal blue, so I am still looking. My mum did suggest I find a mini version of my sisters wedding dress. I have seen one of the bridesmaids dress up as a mini version of the bride at some weddings in Pakistan, but didn’t think this was a good idea.







Mine are always the most difficult. I wear abaya’s at weddings and just change the colour to go with my sisters outfits. I found most abaya’s online for either black, too tight, or way above my budget (I can’t justify paying £300 for what is supposed to be modest dress).

In the end, after much searching and trawling through much rubbish, I found a shop on Green Street called SS Designers. I don’t usually promote businesses, but this one was a joy and I am mentioning in case someone has the same difficulty I had finding an abaya for an occasion. They had a basement full of abaya type dresses, when I found them over my budget (approx £100), they found some about £50 above my range and put the price down. Then they redesigned the whole thing to create the colour of dress and the type of embroidery I wanted. Most importantly, they changed the shape so that it accommodated what will be my then seven and a half month baby bump including moving pieces of embroidery away from the stomach and creating empire line shapes. The changes didn’t cost any extra and the dresses will be ready in four weeks (many places told us it takes 2-3 months), so I will see if they live up to my expectations, but I am happy so far. They are also happy to adjust the abaya’s again after I have had the baby.

I am off to Green Street again tomorrow to help Fashionista choose jewellery for her henna, help my mum pick some bling to go with her wedding day outfit and find something blue for Little Lady.





1 comment:

  1. That is great to know that still in this modern world girls wear abaya on weddings. I know some girls who wear abaya but on some special occasion like wedding they don't that is quite disgusting. Mean when you are going in open place in front of a lot of "na-mahram" you don't wear it then i think it is useless to wear it in routine days even.

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